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May 12, 2010

Trying a new green edible. Fiddlehead Ferns.

I am enjoying all of your green edible comments on this post. I see I'm not alone in my love of spring green! I also realize that I have a lot more green edibles to try! Thank you for sharing.

They say it takes children 10-12 times of trying a new food before a child will accept it. (I wonder if that applies to ice cream?). And that's if a caring and persuasive person is there to encourage a child to try a food more than once.

Even adults can be reticent of trying new foods. I am fairly adventurous with food, but I must admit I was pretty leery of this one. Living along the Oregon Coast, I heard about Fiddlehead Ferns. They simultaneously scared and intrigued me. They look like something that might have spawned from one of those Alien movies. I half expect them to start wriggling out of my hand, like a green caterpillar. Nonetheless, I realized that their short season was coming to a close all too soon and if I was to try them this year, now was my chance. So I did.

Since I wasn't sure what I would think of them, I only bought a few. Locally, they were $12.99 a pound. Ouch.

I read various preparation instructions and I also read a little bit about levels of toxicity (??!). All in all, they seemed safe and I was curious about their taste. So, I boiled them for exactly four minutes, trimmed them, and sauteed them in olive oil. (I realize now that I should have trimmed some of them a bit more---they should be tight spirals). After sauteing, I sprinkled them with a little lemon juice.

And Pants and I tried them.

The verdict? Good. They tasted a little like asparagus, but I agree with a comment I previously read about them: they taste like spring. Another spring green edible.

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Remember to enter the Edible Green Tea Giveaway on this post.
It's your chance to win some organic powdered green tea (80 cups), a tea
tin, a cute little bamboo whisk, and a little spoon. The drawing is on
Friday!